Don't Take Pictures

Artist Finds Box of Never-Before-Seen Weegee Photographs in Thrift StoreIn 1970, David Young purchased a box of old news photographs at a Philadelphia thrift store. After the artist moved to Seattle, he stored the box in a kitchen cabinet where it remained forgotten for years. Earlier this year, Young examined the photos and noticed a stamp on the back that read “PHOTO BY A. FELLIG.” Young’s Google search revealed Arthur Fellig as the real name for the photographer known as Weegee. Young reached out to Christopher Baonanos of New York Magazine and Weegee’s biographer who recognized the handwriting on the photos as Weegee’s. Forty-nine of the 73 prints in the box have Weegee’s stamp and most of them had never been seen before by Bonanos and curators. To date, Bonanos has found dates, locations, and captions for 80% of the photographs. Read the full story (Vulture)

Possible Discovery of the Only Known Recording of Frida Kahlo’s VoiceDiscovered in the Fonoteca National, Mexico’s national sound library, could be the only known recording of Frida Khalo speaking. The tape was discovered by archivists digitizing a collection donated by the late Álvaro Gálvez y Fuentes, a broadcaster and screenwriter. In the recording, a voice believed to be Kahlo’s reads from her essay Portrait of Diego. It was made in 1953 or 1954 for the pilot of El Bachiller, a radio program that aired in 1955, a year after the artist died at the age of 47. The speaker is described as the female painter who is no longer living. Khalo’s image is found in her famed self-portraits as well as silent films and many photographs, but this is the first time that a possible audio recording has been identified. Experts are analyzing the audio to determine whether the voice belongs to Kahlo.Read the full story (ArtNet News)

The First Poster Museum in the US to Open in NYC Poster House will open on West 23rd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan on June 20. This is the first museum in the United States dedicated to the art and history of the poster. The 15,000 square-foot museum will include three exhibition spaces, a children’s area, and interactive displays. The inaugural exhibition will feature famed Art Nouveaus poster designer Alphonse Mucha and the German design collective Cyan. In addition to exhibitions, the museum has a permanent collection of 7,000 historical posters and 1,000 contemporary posters. Read the full story (Hyperallergic)